Constructing More Than Buildings: Don McDaniel on Business Growth and Community Impact

Audio Transcription

Mark Lamberth:
In this episode, I interviewed Don McDaniel: of FM Constructors, his partner and co-owner of the business. Claudio Forres was not able to be with us today. He had a prior engagement, but hopefully we will get to have Claudio back on the show at a future time. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Contractor Grow Show.
This local builder grows through community impact and good business This is Mark Lamberth:. I’m your host Today I have Don McDaniel: of FM Constructors here in Flower Mound, Texas. Don, thank you for being here today,

Don McDaniel:
Mark. Thank you for having me. Good morning.

Mark Lamberth:
Good morning. Fantastic. So yeah, I’ve taken a look and done some research. Looks like you guys, you’re doing some amazing work. Maybe you could tell me a little bit about what FM is up to over in Flower Mound.

Don McDaniel:
Yeah, so we’re a full service general contractor. Everything from simple bathroom remodels to full ground up and new commercial development. The smaller stuff we take really just reputationally friends and friends of friends. We don’t pursue that. What we pursue is commercial construction primarily tenant finish out, tenant improvement is kind of our sweet spot, but like I said, we’re a full service general contractor and can really tackle it all.

Mark Lamberth:
Yeah, fantastic. Yeah, I saw that you guys are doing primarily commercial work. What percentage is commercial versus any residential stuff you guys do?

Don McDaniel:
So we tend towards commercial just because it’s where my partner’s strength was coming into this partnership. We’ve been in business together for about seven years now, and he comes from the commercial side of things. He’s a trained architect, university of Michigan, and he came from that part of the world. And so when I rolled in with him, it just made sense for us. That’s where our contacts were and all that. But when you get good at something, people want you to expand that. There’s always somebody that, Hey, you just helped me open my yoga studio, but I need some help at my house. Can you help me with that? And we’re always happy to do that.

Mark Lamberth:
Interesting. What is the difference between, I mean, when you’re doing commercial construction, I’m just curious what’s your experience of that is? I mean obviously these are huge segments in the market, but doing commercial versus residential, I mean, do you prefer doing commercial work?

Don McDaniel:
Yes, absolutely no question. Primarily because there’s a beginning, middle, and end. Not to eshoo the residential stuff, but when you get into a residential space, they love you. You’re in their personal space and you’re making their personal space better. And gosh, while you’re here, could you also and will you look at this? And it seems to never end. And there’s also really no driver for it to end unless there’s, we’ve got to have this done for my aunt’s birthday in June, there’s really no driver to end it. Whereas with business, commercial construction, they’ve got to start realizing ROI, there’s got to be a completion date, so everybody gets to a point where I’m good, are you good? Let’s wrap this up and get on down the road. And that tends to be better for our business model. It’s really more just that defined beginning, middle, and end. That works well for us. Sometimes the residential just kind of drags on and you got to put a pin in it, come back to it later on.

Mark Lamberth:
Got it. Right. You’re dealing with people sort of emotional, it’s their home and whatever, and all kinds of things can happen in that kind of space, huh?

Don McDaniel:
Yeah, absolutely not. That doesn’t also have its benefits. It can be in a lot of ways more rewarding. You’re helping somebody to make their home safer for their aging parents or improve their work environment. They work from home and they need a home office or the kids who’ve gone to college and they need to convert for a gym because they’re thinking about their health. These are all happy, good things, but they tend to linger longer than make sense.

Mark Lamberth:
Right, got it. Okay, so looks like a couple of guys mainly on the team. I saw you principals on the website. How many folks are on your team properly fluctuate up and down, but how many folks generally?

Don McDaniel:
Actually just three. It’s me and my partner and our admin. We are a true general contractor. All of our work is done by subs now. We have regular sub relationships folks that we work with regularly. So we have those tight-knit relationships, but they are purely contract employees. So the team is just me and my partner and our admin, Lucinda.

Mark Lamberth:
Interesting. Okay, great. And then how have you guys grown the business? You guys been partnered up here for seven years, it looks like you do a lot of work around town. Is it primarily word of mouth? Do you guys have some radio, other things you guys are doing to get the word out there?

Don McDaniel:
It is primarily word of mouth. We do use some marketing tools. We are connected with a marketing firm here in Denton County that has helped us out with some things and we also use some tools like Plan Hub, lead Finder, stuff like that that has helped us grow our business as well as social media. The days of social media kind of being the backwater or the small work has gone LinkedIn, even Facebook and Instagram are great places to find leads.

Mark Lamberth:
Interesting. Yeah, I saw that you guys are really active on those channels and post a lot of stuff over there. Really cool. And I saw more about your story as well in the community. I’d love to hear more about that. Also. What has been your experience with Facebook and LinkedIn? So I mean you go over there and you post, I mean, do you guys run advertising or is it mainly just kind of organic posting and folks learn more about you that way?

Don McDaniel:
We’ve done a little bit of advertising, mostly not necessarily telling our story so much as putting up examples of things that we’ve done and then pushing that out there a little bit. So we’ve paid to push some posts, stuff like that. But really our marketing is really kind of an organic model. We are members of the chamber. We move in those circles, those small business circles. And then we also have some larger national contacts that have come to us organically as well. So it’s not a, I hate to say this, it sounds unfocused, but we don’t have an actual marketing plan. On Tuesdays we do this and on Wednesdays we do that. It’s really more what makes sense today, what makes sense with our board, where do we have gaps, where do we need to be focusing to make sure that we’ve got the next project lined up and we address that in that way.

Mark Lamberth:
Okay. And you guys totally just full capacity throughout the year or there sort of open spots where you guys have got more space?

Don McDaniel:
No, there’s always more space. There’s always more that can be done, right. That’s always the case. If you’re not growing, you’re dying. So we are constantly looking to grow, constantly looking. We use contract superintendents on some of our projects that are outside of our region. I would like to get at least one full-time national traveling superintendent so that I wouldn’t have to worry about that so much, but that’s just a factor of growing. Just that next level, just that next little bit and then we’ll bring on a full-time actual employee to the organization to handle those traveling projects.

Mark Lamberth:
Superintendent. So maybe you can explain what that would mean. So this would be people on your team that are traveling regionally to do jobs,

Don McDaniel:
To manage the subs that we have contracted with in that region, whatever the case may be. Somebody on the ground there that’s managing the daily, has the electrician showed up, are they on schedule, managing the inspections, those types of things, limits our travel a little bit. Keeps us more focused on growing the business and not having to travel quite so much.

Mark Lamberth:
Right. Okay. Got it. So I noticed that personally you have got some really cool stuff that you’ve done. You’re an Eagle Scout.

Don McDaniel:
I am.

Mark Lamberth:
Which is just amazing. I was a scout way back in the day. I didn’t get very far. I think it got a few merit badges, but that is impressive.

Don McDaniel:
It’s something I’m very proud of. It was quite an accomplishment for me and especially back in the day. It was a big deal and it was a lot of work and took a lot of time and focus, especially for a young man who’s got other distractions. It was quite an accomplishment.

Mark Lamberth:
Right,

Don McDaniel:
Amazing.

Mark Lamberth:
You were very involved now in Mound with the community. And so you’re president of for Communities in Schools in North Texas, is that right?

Don McDaniel:
Correct. Yeah. I’ve been on the board now for about seven years and was just recently elected president of the board this year. I’m very proud of that. It’s a great, it’s actually a national organization. There are different chapters in each metropolitan area, but so this is Communities and Schools of North Texas and it’s just a great way for us to give back and to make sure that we’re providing kids the opportunity and the promise to succeed in life. And I’m very passionate about that. I actually sit on four nonprofit boards altogether. My partner does same stuff. We are very involved in our community. We’re both former town councilmen here in Flower Me both served on planning and zoning, which actually in a lot of ways, while that is when we were doing it, it was service-minded. But now looking back in retrospect, it has certainly given us an advantage as a general contractor to have seen it from the other side, from the planning and zoning side, from the inside of the municipality. It gives you a better understanding of how the process works, whether it’s permitting or inspections or those types of things. Even if you’ve got to go in for a zone change or a special use permit, we know how those wheels are greased and how to get that done. So it helps us a lot.

Mark Lamberth:
Wow. I bet. Amazing. And then Don, I mean you have kids that are, I think probably grown at this point.

Don McDaniel:
They are,

Mark Lamberth:
But you’re still involved in the schools, really involved in the community. Is this something that you’re passionate about working with schools and kids and keeping them in school?

Don McDaniel:
Well, so I said that my partner and I have only been in business together for about seven years now, going on eight. The reason for that is prior to that, I was a stay-at-home dad for about 17 years.

Don McDaniel:
Both my wife and I knew that we wanted someone to stay at home and be with the kids and manage the household and make sure that they were getting all the attention and resources and access that they needed to be able to succeed. And we also, very early in our relationship, my wife and I set out a plan for what our lives were going to be. And part of that was giving was being involved in our communities, was being philanthropic and we lived that every day. So having that experience of being a stay-at-home dad and being with my kids daily involved in their schools, a room parent and a PTA dad, and you can imagine back in the early two thousands, even as progressive as we’ve become in the modern era, a lot of times I got that sideways glance, Hey, what’s that dude doing here?

Don McDaniel:
But I also, it really created a contrast for me to realize that so many kids don’t that opportunity first. So many kids don’t have a father in the home, and I saw that as a detriment and so many kids don’t have parents who can help in the way that I was. We were fortunate that we were able to do that. Not every family can do that. And so I was able to see that disparity in resources and access and how that can affect outcomes. And so when I was asked to join the Board of Communities and Schools, it was a perfect fit for me, had already been, like I said, involved in PTA and those types of things, and it just made sense and I’ve become very passionate about it. It is a great way to help us societally by jumping in at the beginning of the process, the beginning of these kids’ education and their social learning and all of that, and give them the resources that they need so that they can succeed in that environment and then go out and be productive members of society, whether that’s to go on college or go to a trade school or go straight into the workforce.

Don McDaniel:
They’ve got that degree. They know how to work, they know how they have that social emotional education so that they can integrate into society and be productive, and that helps all of us.

Mark Lamberth:
Man. Inspiring. One question that I have for you is of your clients that you work with, I think you do a fair amount of repeat work. There’s also a lot of just referrals, and that’s where most of your client tell comes from. How many of your clients that you work with know about the community involvement? I mean, obviously that’s not why you do it and whatever else, but I’m just curious for this correlation because I’m fascinated by you being so active in your community and having a really robust word of mouth business and I think those things aren’t unrelated. Yeah. How many of your clients know you guys and know what you do and have that trust from? Well, we’ve known Don forever. He’s on the talent council or has been, and

Don McDaniel:
I think quite a few. I think that a lot of times that’s part of the referral. I’ll give you an example. I have an appointment this afternoon with a guy who owns a restaurant here in Flower Mount. He needs some work done on his restaurant, an addition. He needs some additional seating and all that kind of fun stuff. He was referred by another restaurateur here. We built his restaurant from the ground up. That meeting for that first restaurant where the referral came from was purely organic, but it happened at a community event where I sit on the board for the organization that we were at. He just happened to be there. So he knew that I was involved with the Summit Club of Flower Mound. So then he learned later on, oh, these guys were also on town council. And so I think when he made that referral that for the meeting I have this afternoon, he probably mentioned some of those things.

Don McDaniel:
I don’t know that he did, but I would think that he probably did because I don’t know the gentleman that I’m meeting with this afternoon, but I feel like he was given, based on our conversation, I feel like he knows more about me than I know about him. So I think it does play in, and I would be lying if I said that. I don’t make it known. Tie our business to our social involvement quite a bit through social media and through the things that we do, through the charitable giving that we do as a company. I give to the organizations that we support. So I don’t hide that. I mean, I think that these things, they all work together. This is what community is, this is how we help each other and we all become stronger and better together, grow our businesses, grow our organizations, grow our faith groups, grow our families. It’s through this interconnectivity so I don’t hide from it, and I do integrate those things together. Yeah,

Mark Lamberth:
That’s fantastic. Very interesting. Well, do you have plans on what you guys will do to grow over the next few years?

Don McDaniel:
Yeah, so the concentration is going to be to continue to concentrate on the tenant, finish out tenant improvement. I think that that’s our sweet spot. It’s where we can move the fastest. It’s where we can be the most productive. And I enjoy helping people to grow their business to open, whether it’s their first business or their fourth, to help entrepreneurs, people out in the community that are doing things, that are creating jobs, creating wealth, creating value. I love helping them to get started. And so it’s rewarding for us. It’s profitable for us and it’s a good model. So we’re going to continue to do that. Right now, I’m expanding my outreach to some franchise organizations that help sell or broker franchises get in with them to become a preferred or a go-to general contractor to help these folks build out those first, second, third, fourth franchise locations. So we’re working with a couple organizations right now to that end and kind of growing those relationships, and I think that’s where our business model is going to move over the next three to five years.

Mark Lamberth:
Fantastic. And then if you were talking to a contractor just getting going, a remodeler or someone in the first year or two of business or someone that’s trying to expand their business, what advice would you have for them, Don? I mean, we’ve talked about some ideas that you guys have used, really what you’ve used to grow the businesses, how you guys live and what you guys are doing to participate in the community and how that’s helped. What are some ideas along those lines or other ideas of how to grow someone’s business?

Don McDaniel:
I think one of the most important things that you have to do as you sit down and thinking about your business model, what you want to do is you have to define your core values as a business. And sometimes those are lockstep with your personal core values. Sometimes they’re parallel to those, but whatever those are, you need to define those so that every decision that you make after that, whether it’s financial or material or personnel, follows within those core values. Once you know what those are, the rest of it kind of falls in place a little easier. Does what I’m thinking about doing, does that fall within my core values? Is that hitting my goals and what I want to accomplish with this? So do that first, define what you want to be, who you want to be, and then once you start setting that pattern and then you’re making decisions from there, the people that I see in the business world that are successful and I count myself in this is those that can adjust and can change on the fly and not get so locked into their perceived idea of what their business was going to be or should be and adapt to the environment to what it turns out you’re actually good at.

Don McDaniel:
Maybe you start off as an all purpose home remodeler, but maybe what you’re really good at is tile work. Maybe you need to specialize in tile work. That’s where you have success and focus on that. Okay, maybe I’m just going to go in and I’m going to be the tile guy on these projects. Maybe you’re better off as a project manager. Maybe none of your skills are really robust enough that you need to be all around guy, but maybe you understand projects and you need to be the project manager and bring in other people to do the trades. Be able and willing to adjust your business model on the fly so that you can adapt to the environment that you’re in, both the internal environment, your skills, your attributes, your all of that, and what the market is asking for, right? If you can adjust to those things on the fly and then find your niche as you move along, that’s where success is going to come

Mark Lamberth:
From. That is great. I love it. Okay, excellent. I’m taking notes here. Fantastic, Don. Super helpful information for listeners here. I think people are going to get a lot of value out of this. If folks want to get in touch with FM Constructors or you personally, what’s the best way to do that?

Don McDaniel:
Email’s fantastic. I’m a Gen X email is the way to go for me. I respond to it. I can reference it back to it. I can hold on to it. So don@fmconstructors.com, that’s constructors with an OR s.com is the best way you could find us on the web@fmconstructors.com. All of our contact info is on there as well. And of course, we’re on the socials like I talked about. You can find me on LinkedIn, on Instagram, on Facebook on X. We’re kind of everywhere. Yeah.

Mark Lamberth:
Okay, perfect. Great. Don, thank you so much for being on the show today. Very helpful. Great information.

Don McDaniel::
Thank you. It’s great talking to you.